Sorry about not posting….

I seem to have pulled a muscle in my back and gosh it hurt! If your back is hurt everything you do becomes a challenge. Heck, just finding a comfortable potion to sleep is a challenge. I spent some time in bed laying on the heating pad, putting on a lot of the essential oil pain cream and using the TENS device “electric muscle stimulation” to help clean out the “waste” that causes muscle ache as well as keeping the muscle moving despite me resting in bed. Movement is critical to healing the back/muscles as not moving makes your body weaker and it hurts a lot.

I did not get a lot done for about 48 hours. I vacuumed my carpet, washed dishes and mowed my lawn. There were a lot of other projects that did not get done because my pain level was to high for me to do the work. One of the things I learned about becoming disabled is: Some times you can’t do the work because your body can’t do the work. This is not about using an injury or handicap to excuse you not working. I know the difference between being lazy and being hurt.

Anyhoo, I got some jobs done by working up to each job and taking rest breaks to see how the injury reacted. There were some major twinges but I did get a couple of easy jobs done. It is okay to take time to heal and test out that healing in stages. Trying to do much to quickly often bites me in the butt, so I have to remember remember slow and steady wins the race. Learning what does not work for you is just as important as learning what works for you. Failure is just a way to learn about what does not work. I’m still in recovery mode with the pulled/sprained muscle but the pain cream is doing great but it’s tough to rub cream on your back yourself.

Mom got the rope and PVC tube secured under the tarp to help prevent the tarp from being lifted by the wind. One thing I have learned about working with chicken wire is I hate it! Yes, I know it is cheap, but that is the only positive attribute to using chicken wire fence rolls. Chicken wire shred protective tarps and leave anyone working with it battered and bloody.

I have more shopping to finish up and overall I’m feeling a lot better. I have a few yard jobs waiting like cutting back the grape vines and weeds. I need to start filling up my kindling wood box. Filling the box is a challenge but I would not be surprised that filling that box full would give me 6-8 weeks worth of kindling this winter. I’m buying paraffin wax for the “fire starters” and last but not least looking for a Chimney sweep to clean the wood stove by the middle of September. My goal is to have all of the jobs for heating with wood this winter will be complete by the end of September.